Coun­try Cor­ner

Three al­bums and fin­ish­ing run­ners-up on Aus­tralia’s Got Tal­ent in 2012, not to men­tion lengthy tour­ing with Lee Ker­naghan, has honed the sound of Tas­ma­nia-bred coun­try rock­ers The Wolfe Broth­ers. Coun­try Heart is al­bum num­ber four, and with renowned pro­duc­er­mu­si­cian Matt Fell at the helm, the pro­gres­sion both in song craft and sound is ev­i­dent. The open­ing hit­bound track ‘Ain’t Seen It Yet’ is a cel­e­bra­tion of life; ‘Storm Rollin In’ com­pares in­clement weather to a wild love­mak­ing ses­sion, and The Wolfe Broth­ers are high­way­bound on ‘This Ride’. The slightly more se­date ‘We Got Wheels’, is another song about hit­ting the black­top, and ‘Tail Lights’ cel­e­brates the end of the work­ing week, and an apt fi­nale to a classy al­bum.

LAST MAN STAND­ING Wil­lie Nel­son

Sony/Legacy www.lega­cyrecord­ings.com

Age­less singer-song­writer Wil­lie Nel­son is one of the most pro­lific record­ing artists of any genre, re­leas­ing around an al­bum each year. On his out­stand­ing new re­lease, Last Man Stand­ing, Nel­son looks at his own mor­tal­ity, with the ti­tle track light-heart­edly re­flect­ing on the pass­ing of friends, in­clud­ing Merle Hag­gard, Way­lon Jen­nings and Ray Price. He con­tin­ues his bright-side stance on the philo­soph­i­cal ‘Bad Breath’, where he sings that it’s bet­ter than “no breath at all.” Nel­son en­joys blend­ing coun­try with west­ern swing, no­tably on ‘Ready To Roar’, and there’s honky-tonk pi­ano on ‘I Ain’t Got Nothin’. Those who have ever lost a loved one will re­late to ‘Some­thing You Get Through’, con­tain­ing some of the best lyrics Nel­son has ever writ­ten.